File 5.1 Concepts & Organizational Theories.docx (14.436 KB)
It is critical to your understanding that you be able to identify & recognize the concepts associated with the specific organizational
theories covered in your reading materials. How humans behave within their organizations has impact on the individuals seeking services as
organizations and service agencies differ in how they are structured and managed. In keeping with this acknowledgment, it is imperative
that you recognize the social service organization as a macro system in the social environment and that you understand their internal
functioning and how it could impact the customers they serve.
Instructions: 1). Match the Concepts that characterize one of the Organizational Theories in this exercise. Will be scored on correctness.
Worth 18 points
2). In your own words (do not copy paste) describe the 3 entities of organizations. Include social entities, goal directed, and structured
and coordinated activities.
5.1 Organization theories and Concepts
Match the following concepts with the organizational theories they best portray below.
Organizational theories include:
1. Classical organizational theories………. ___________
2. Human relations theories………………. ___________
3. Feminist theories………………………. ___________
4. Cultural perspective……………………. ___________
5. Political-economy theory……………… ___________
6. Institutional perspective……………….. ___________
7. Contingency theory……………………. ___________
8. Culture-Quality theories……………….. ___________
9. Ecosystems theories……………………. ___________
Below are a range of concepts that tend to characterize one of the organizational theories presented above. For each, identify the
organizational theory it characterizes.
a. Concept: Emphasis on interpersonal relationships and respect for each other’s
rights including use of a gender filter, empowerment, the personal as political, the
importance of process, and diversity is strength.
b. Concept: Emphasis on how organizations take resources (input) and process them into some kind of product or service (output), and
on how all parts of the organization (subsystems) are interrelated and function together to produce output.
c. Concept: Specifically designed, formal structure and a consistent, rigid organizational network of employees.
d. Concept: Assumption “that employees want to feel useful and important, that employees have strong social needs, and that these
needs are more important than money in motivating employees” (Griffin & Moorhead, 2010, p. 85).
e. Concept: Emphasis on the assumption that each organization develops a unique mixture of values, standards, presumptions, and
practices about how things should be done that eventually result in predictable performance.
f. Concept: Emphasis on the idea that each element involved in an organization depends on other elements and that employee behavior
is complex; therefore, there is no one generally best way to accomplish tasks or goals.
g. Concept: Emphasis on organizational adaptation to the external environment, with a focus on responses to rules imposed by social
institutions; the organization searches for external legitimacy and support to enhance its potential for survival.
h. Concept: Emphasis on organizational culture and quality improvement, valuing a “strong set of shared positive values and norms
within a corporation … while emphasizing quality, service, high performance, and flexibility” (Vecchio, 2006, p. 12).
i. Concept: Emphasis on organizational adaptation to the external environment,
with a focus on resources, power, and a constant struggle to gain power.